Recently we talked about Chivas USA and U.S. international Juan Agudelo, about his training spell with Scottish giant Celtic.

The point I made then was that these training spells are de facto tryouts. They aren’t tryouts per se, but they serve the same function. (Which is why all these training spells that Jurgen Klinsmann always encourages, especially for young players, fall under the “law of unintended consequences. The “consequence” in this case is that the training spells abroad may not always be the best thing for MLS, serving to strip away talent.)

And who knows if a permanent move to Celtic would be best for Agudelo, who turns 20 today.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that Agudelo is on the fast track to Glasgow.

As often as these transfer attempts to clubs abroad work out for promising young Americans, an equal number never happen – usually because MLS, in efforts to protect the value of all their players, reject transfer offers they deem insufficient.

In other words, news this morning of interest from Celtic Park is far more “beginning” on this tale than “conclusion.”

This is where the MLS still messes up. They need to let their best young players go. The training, coaching and style of play in the MLS is still not conducive enough to develop young players like Europe can. The SPL is bad, but Celtic is a quality continental team and he will grow faster and better than at Chivas.
Of course, I am sure the MLS will say no for some ridiculous reason – something about marketing, but at some point they need to realize there is a trade off between “marketing” and developing your players. After all, I wonder how Shea feels right now? Was holding on to him to completely regress worth it?

Idk from where im sitting MLS has produced plenty of quality players. Id put Shea’s regression down to lack of maturity and burn out more than playing in MLS, if he had moved on to europ i could have easily seen him floundering. Marketing is one thing but the MLS is more interested in protecting the value of players, they have to get the right number money wise to let a player go, which is true of any party when making player sales.

I think MLS generally feels OK about players leaving. It’s really all about value, and that’s where things get sticky. The league has to protect the value of its assets (the players), and the individual clubs must weigh the money in vs. the loss to their team’s competitive pursuits. So, there are two bodies here (league an the club) that can say “no.”